Heads of crimping pliers of the present type are used for crimping pliers for crimping a contact or connector (in the following “connector”) with an end of a line, cable or wire with at least partially removed insulation. During the crimping process the connector is plastically deformed and pressed against the cable end which is located within the connector. Due to the removed insolation an electrical contact is established under the plastic deformation. On the other hand, the crimping process provides a durable connection between the connector and the cable end.
It is also known to equip crimping pliers with a locator. Locators are used for positioning the connector relative to a base body of the head of the crimping pliers, in particular for defining the predetermined position of the connector with respect to the cable end and/or for a coaxial alignment of the connector with the cable end. The locator guarantees that at the beginning of the crimping process the connector and the cable end have the desired position with respect to a die of the head of the crimping pliers. It is also possible that the crimping process and during the plastic deformation of the connector the locator during provides or withholds the predetermined relative position and orientation of the connector and of the cable end with respect to the die.
A plurality of constructions of crimping pliers, heads of crimping pliers, locators and configurations for moving degrees of freedom for the locator are known from the prior art:
Crimping pliers known from DE 27 18 165 A1 comprise a head with a C-shaped frame which is laterally open. For another embodiment of DE 27 18 165 A1, crimping jaws and die halves mounted with the crimping jaws move towards each other similar to scissors. For both embodiments, the head of the crimping pliers defines a head plane wherein the tool parts building the die halves and crimping jaws move during the crimping process. The crimping pliers comprise a locator which is pivotable around a pivoting axis between a loading state for inserting the connector and a crimping state. The pivoting axis has an orientation perpendicular to the afore mentioned head plane. Accordingly, it is possible to pivot the locator into the loading state for inserting or assembling the connector, to insert the connector into the nest of the locator and pivot the locator with the connector housed in the nest back to the crimping state, wherein the connector is held with a predetermined relative position and orientation with respect to the tool parts and in a position aligned with the die. Subsequently, the connector is plastically deformed during the crimping process actuated by actuation of the crimping pliers, here by means of two manually pivoted hand levers.
The applicant of the present invention also distributes crimping pliers under the trademark “CS20KS”. These crimping pliers comprise also a C-shaped head which is laterally open. At the head of the crimping pliers a locator is linearly guided along an axis having an orientation parallel to the horizontal leg of the C and located parallel to the head plane. The locator is driven by a pivotable lever supported at the head of the pliers. The pivoting movement of the lever is transferred by a pin guided in an elongated hole into a linear movement along the axis for the linear movement of the locator.
The applicant of the present invention also distributes crimping pliers under the trademark “CS25KS”. Also these crimping pliers have a C-shaped head. Here, a locator is pivoted around a pivoting axis with respect to the main body or frame of the pliers head. For this embodiment the pivoting axis has an orientation perpendicular to the head plane. By means of a manual actuation of a knurled button the locator is pivoted between a crimping state and a loading state.
DE 198 32 884 C1 (see U.S. Pat. No. 6,155,095) discloses crimping pliers with a head built by sandwiched plates. Here, the head is not C-shaped with a transverse opening but O-shaped with a central opening. Upon manual actuation of the hand levers, a movable tool part is displaced along a longitudinal axis relative to a tool part fixed at the head of the crimping pliers. The patent discloses a locator which is pivoted around a pivoting axis. The pivoting axis has an orientation parallel to the head plane as well as transverse to the moving direction of the tool parts of the crimping pliers. In the crimping state the locator has an orientation parallel to the head plane. From this crimping state, the locator is pivoted around the pivoting axis out of the head plane into the loading state.
For the above locators the required movement of the locator between the loading state and the crimping state requires that one hand of the user grips the handles of the crimping pliers whereas the other hand of the user moves the locator between the crimping state and the loading state. In contrast to these embodiments, DE 10 2008 017 366 A1 (see US 2009/0249855A1) discloses a locator with respect to a base body of the pliers head. The locator has an extension extending into the close neighborhood of the hand levers. It is possible to pivot the locator with the thumb of the hand gripping the handles of the crimping pliers. Accordingly, the use of the crimping pliers, in particular a one-hand use of the crimping pliers and the locator, is eased.
DE 10 2008 012 011 B3 (see US 2009/0217791 A1) discloses a pliers head with a plurality of die halves held or built by tool parts wherein the tool parts are moved towards each other during the crimping process. Here, the die halves have a translational degree of freedom transverse to the head of the crimping pliers such that for different work pieces different die halves can be located in a central position of the pliers head. Accordingly, it is possible to use different crimping die halves with optimized force conditions for different work pieces. On the other hand, it is possible to increase the number of different crimping die halves with different contours and geometries built by a die matrix.